TRENTON -- Just one week after it was introduced, a slightly pared down bill to overhaul New Jersey's voting system began its legislative journey Monday.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee voted 6-3 to approve the "Democracy Act" along party lines, with Democrats supporting it and Republicans opposing it.

"We cannot afford to let our democracy sit with diminishing participation at the polls and do nothing about it, because democracy suffers," said Deborah Cornavaca, legislative director for New Jersey Working Families, a progressive group that has been pushing the measure.

Citing low turnout figures in recent years, Democrats have made the measure a priority and want to have it on Republican Gov. Chris Christie's desk by the end of the month. Supporters expect them to seek to put it on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in 2016 if Christie does as expected and vetoes it.

The committee struck a provision that would have allowed New Jersey residents to register to vote at the polls on Election Day and then cast a provisional ballot.

State Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Essex), who chairs the Legislative Black Caucus, had complained that it could allow voter fraud.

"If you want to vote early, you can move the time frame closer, but not the same day. I've watched buses pull up... they actually bring people up in buses to polling sites," Rice said. "We don't need that. So that, I think, the leadership of both houses agree with us."

Rice also said that a portion of the bill that expands the availability of early voting in New Jersey will instead advance as separate legislation.

Other major changes in the bill include automatic voter registration upon applying for a driver's license, a clarification of the state's contradictory U.S. Senate succession laws and a requirement that pre-election materials be printed in more languages.

John Tomicki, executive director of the conservative League of American Families, said they were rushing the bill.

"It is a massive undertaking, what you're doing," he said. "It is a bill that you should not be rushing through. It's too large. It does not give people an opportunity."

Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren), who voted no, said he doubted the legislation would increase voter turnout, and noted that the bill does not yet include an estimate of how much it would cost.

"I think some of the voter apathy is not on them so much as it is on our performance," DiMaio said.